If you’ve read my first book, Smart Work, I hope you are better for it, working in a way that is personally productive. But even in teams where everyone has had personal productivity training and has committed to working as productively as possible, there can still be a productivity drain. This is because personal productivity is not the same as team productivity.

Personal productivity focuses on the individual, and in terms of the Smart Work system, looks at how you organise your Actions, manage your Inputs and connect to your Outcomes.  This is what gets both YOU and ME working individually productively. Team productivity is about the gap between two workers. It focuses on what happens when we come together with other people to cooperate, whether that be in a meeting, on a project or through a communication channel like email.

Whenever we interact with others there is a chance that we will drag their productivity down or they will drag our productivity down, or both. This productivity drain is what I call ‘friction’. It slows us down, gets in the way and causes us frustration.

How much more productive could you and your team be if we minimised the friction, and instead created ‘flow’ when we worked together? Over the next few newsletters I will be sharing some concepts from my upcoming book, Smart Teams. I reckon this is an exciting follow-on to Smart Work, and can take your team to the next level of productivity – Superproductive.

In the meantime, observe what is happening in your team. How are you creating friction for each other? What are the everyday frustrations that impact on your ability to get stuff done? What poor behaviours have become so prevalent that you just accept them as ‘this is just the way it is’? These are all solvable issues for a committed and focused ‘Smart’ team.

At the start of 2017 I set myself a goal of taking a six-kilometre run every week for the whole year. I have not been 100% successful, but most weeks you’ll see me down by the river with my running gear on.

With a few runs under my belt, I started to focus on my average pace per kilometre. I feel I have pushed myself well if I can run a kilometre on or just under six minutes. Not bad for an old bloke I reckon.

One of the challenges with maintaining my pace is feeling like I’m on target, only to find out at the end that I’m not. However, it’s too late to adjust things at the finish line! So, I started using a running app that gave me updates about my pace every kilometre. This is great, because I can see when I’ve run a slower kilometre, and pick up the pace in the next one to stay on track overall.

I reckon we can take this idea and apply it to our project work. How often have you been working on a project, or a project deliverable, and have realised close to the deadline that you have way more to do than anticipated? How often has this led to a mad flurry of urgent activity to get it across the line?

In his book, The Game Changer, Dr Jason Fox talks about the need to make progress visible when carrying out complex work. If we don’t, we often see a drop in performance, and a drop in motivation. A sense of progress keeps us on track and keeps us feeling motivated. But how can you effectively measure progress on projects if you manage them in a paper notepad, or even worse, in your head? I work with many clients who only use project tools to manage big projects. Many of the smaller projects get planned and managed in a less than ideal way, with inappropriate tools.

That does not mean you need to plan your projects in a complex tool like Microsoft Project, which is overkill for most people. What I am suggesting is to use tools that are fit for purpose – that will help you to plan the actions, timelines, deadlines and your progress against these.

As an example, the project milestone timeline above was created using a default Excel template called Project Timeline (you can search for templates as you open a new Excel spreadsheet). This is such a quick and simple way to map out the key deliverable dates for your project. There are also a host of other simple project management tools available online, that are designed to help your team collaborate on projects, including Microsoft Planner, Asana, Trello and Basecamp. All excellent tools designed to keep your team visually up to date on a project’s progress.

So, do yourself and your team a favour. Take some time out this week to plan a project. Make it visible. Then make it a priority to track your progress each week. Anticipate the potential blockages, and adjust your efforts as necessary to stay on track. It’s not rocket science, but it’s how they build rockets!

When you are not clear in your communication to me, it causes me friction. I then need to seek clarification from you, in turn causing you friction. Both of us incur wasted time and frustration because not enough care was taken with the initial communication. You may have thought you were being clear, but if you stopped and reread your email/post/memo before sending with the reader in mind, you may have picked up a lack of clarity.

I recently bought a new car, which required me to switch my electronic toll tag from the old car to the new. The tag holder on the window was stuck fast, so I had to order a new one from the toll company. This was not expensive from a financial point of view, but cost me more time than it should have.

I logged onto my toll account online, and navigated to the relevant page to order the new bracket. There were four pictures of different types of tag, and I was asked to choose the one I had, so I received the right bracket. All good, except that my tag did not look quite like any of the pictures. So, I had to pick up the phone to call their customer support team. After a wait, I got onto a woman who assured me she could help. She got me to read out the code printed on my tag, and then informed me I had the tag in picture four. Ok, but it did not look the same!

She patiently told me that it was my tag, and that was the one I should choose. When I asked why the picture looked different to my tag, she laughed and told me that of course they won’t all look exactly the same. It just looks something like my tag. ‘Something like my tag’ is not good enough to help me to make the right decision, and unbelievably frustrating for me.

The point here is that if the picture was designed to communicate what my tag looked like, it should look exactly the same, or if not, provide additional information about the potential differences. Companies like this try to reduce costs by channelling their customer queries and complaints through their website, rather than tying up human resources. But if the website does not communicate the right information, or clear information, it causes friction, and results in a phone call anyway. Get it right first time and save time, money and frustration.

Exactly the same concept applies to your communications. Get it right first time and save time, money and frustration.

As a manager or a business leader, your brand is always on show. Every time you interact with others in your organisation, or outside for that matter, you put your brand on show, and are judged by your actions. Every email, meeting, delegation, conversation, interruption, phone message or presentation allows others to form a judgement of you and the way you operate.

So how is ‘brand you’ looking do you think?  Do others see you as organised, focused and responsive? Or do they see you as chaotic, distracted and reactive? You might ask, does it matter? I reckon it does, much more than we might think. You might be good at your job, but if you are not underpinning your technical skills with good productivity skills, you may be causing a drop in your team’s productivity as well as your own. Not to mention putting a dent in your brand as a leader!

I remember hearing a great story from a friend who had attended the Disney Academy in the US to learn about their amazing customer service culture. One of the stories that had become legendary in the Disney culture was related to Snow White.

Apparently, there is a vast network of tunnels underneath the Disney theme park to allow staff and workers to get from one location to another without ruining the fantasy created above ground for the patrons. This means that the kids who believe with all their might in the Disney characters, see only the ‘show’ and not the behind the scenes stuff that makes the park run.

One day, Snow White (or the actor who plays her), came out of the tunnel complex to have a quick cigarette. As she puffed away, a little girl and her family came around the corner and stopped dead in their tracks when they saw the little girl’s idol smoking. The dream was shattered, and I don’t think that Snow White lasted in that role for very much longer.

Remember, you are always on show. You need to uphold excellent productivity standards, and hold others to account on theirs. Be on time to meetings. Do what you say you will do. Be responsive. Make yourself available to your team. Don’t forget stuff. Don’t delegate at the last minute. Be present and engaged.

It is not easy to do all of this consistently, especially when we are under pressure and busy. But if not us, who?

I let the cat out of the bag a few weeks ago about my upcoming book Smart Teams. I am well and truly in the middle of a world of pain, with editorial deadlines, design meetings and writing. Lots and lots of writing. So, to give myself a bit of a break I thought I would do some more… writing, and here we are dear readers!

One of the central concepts in Smart Teams is the productivity friction we cause each other. This friction is generated in the ‘gap’. The gap between two workers, or two groups of workers. When I work with you, there is a risk that I will drag your productivity down, or you will drag my productivity down. We do not mean to do this to each other. It is just what happens when we go at a million miles an hour and work in a complex organisation.

We see this friction created when we collaborate, congregate or communicate with others. Whenever we come together and interact, productivity is at risk. So how can we turn this friction into flow?

I believe the starting point is to operate with a high level of awareness, and a high level of care. We first need to be aware of our own behaviours and the impact they have on our colleague’s productivity. Now, this will help our colleagues, but not necessarily translate to a boost in our own productivity. So, we should coach them to be more aware too.

Then, we need to care. We need to take the time and effort to work with our colleagues in a more productive way. If we cannot be bothered to care about their productivity, then how can we expect them to care about ours?

Think about the situations that derailed your productivity this week. Could those situations have been less disruptive if other people were more aware and more careful? You may not be able to control that, but you can control your levels of awareness and carefulness. Mind the gap, and maybe someone else will mind it for you in return.

Have you ever tried to adopt a new system, habit or behaviour, only to revert to old ways after a few weeks? Every now and then, I see this happen for clients who are trying to implement the Smart Work system.

In the days after a Smart Work workshop or conference presentation they have great resolve as they are still basking in the afterglow of inspiration, but over the weeks the inspiration turns to perspiration, and they drift back to old, more comfortable habits. What can you do to stay on track in those first crucial four weeks where lasting habits are forged?

I am on a mission to reduce my use of plastic bags. I am keenly aware that I am a part of the problem that our environment is facing, and I contribute to this problem every time I shop for groceries. A few weeks ago I resolved to change my way and bring my own reusable bags to the supermarket. About time I hear you say!

I have tried this several times before, but every time I seemed to slip back into the habit of just rocking up to the checkout and asking for plastic bags. This time I vowed it would be different, so I put my thinking hat on and pondered the stumbling blocks that challenged my new behaviours on the previous attempts. I reckon there were three stumbling blocks that derailed me:

1. I did not feel very trendy with my bright green, slightly tacky reusable bags. I know, get a life Dermot, but I am trying to be totally transparent here.
2. I would forget to take the bags out of the car boot, and would only remember them when in the supermarket. Too hard to go back now. ‘Yes please, plastic would be fine’.
3. I would bring the shopping home, unpack the bags and leave the bags in the kitchen. This would mean that next time I shopped I would not have them with me.

These were the only reasons that I failed to adopt a new, more environmentally friendly behaviour when shopping. So here is what I did this time. I bought some reusable calico bags that I actually like. They have strong comfortable handles, and while I do not see them as a fashion statement, I hold my head high in the supermarket.

If I leave the bags in the car by accident, I force myself to go back and get them. It is now a non-negotiable for me. Over time I find I am forgetting them less and less. Finally, I make a point of taking the bags straight out to the car after unpacking the shopping. That way they are ready for the next shopping trip. As I hit the six-week mark on my new regime, I realise that my new behaviours have lasted, and am confident they will stay in place. All because I identified the potential stumbling blocks and put strategies in place to negate them.

So, if you are trying to develop a new habit at work, think about your stumbling blocks. Maybe you want to get on top of your email, but keep lapsing back. Maybe you are trying to switch from a paper task list to an electronic one. Maybe you have resolved to work more proactively and less reactively. Work out your stumbling blocks and give yourself a fighting chance to adopt your new system, habit or behaviour.

Productive collaboration requires visibility across the team. To work well together, we need to have access to the right information, at the right time. We are sometimes managing complex work across multiple people in different locations. The more visible we can make this work, the easier it is to manage.

The good news is that there are many tools out there that can help with this. We have everything from Agile boards festooned with Sticky Notes, to cloud-based planning and scheduling tools for projects. We have CRM systems for customer management, and of course our old friends Microsoft Outlook and OneNote. Getting access to tools is not the issue. It is making sure these tools are useful, usable and used. This can make the difference between our collaboration tools being adopted across the team, or lying dormant on our desktop.

Collaboration tools will only be embraced if they are useful.  They must add value and help us to do our job more effectively. They need to be usable as well. That means they should be easy to use in most situations. And finally, they should be used, not just by a few, but by all of the relevant people in the team. This is usually where the real value of the tool lies.

Let me illustrate with a real-life example. We implemented a new CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system last year. I will be honest – I have struggled. If I run it through my three criteria, I get mixed results.

Is it useful? Yes, it adds great value.

Is it usable? That depends. If I am at my desk, yes. If I am out and about, not really. Access to the system from my iPad or iPhone is not great, and that is often when I need to review client information, or input notes against a client meeting.

Is it used? Again, not really by anyone but myself and Chauntelle. Because of this I find it less compelling to bother updating it myself just for my own benefit. We are working through these issues, and feel that there is value in doing so, but it has been a struggle.

Now compare that scenario to our use of MS OneNote. I use this tool to take all meeting notes, to plan and manage simple projects, to collate research and to even manage my grandfather’s historical records. I use OneNote every day, many times each day. I would be lost without it. Let’s run it through the three criteria.

Is it useful? Yes, immensely so.

Is it usable? Yes, it is very intuitive and easy to access on all my devices. Anytime, anyplace, anywhere as the Martini Rosso advert used to say. There is no friction that impedes me using it, so habits build quickly around the new tool.

Is it used? Yes, the whole team has embraced it. In a few short months, it has become an integral part of our business. And as other members of the team start to use OneNote, I am encouraged to use it more, and so it goes in an upward spiral.

So how do we ensure that our collaboration tools are useful, usable and used? Keep the following in mind when you are introducing your next collaboration tool:

• Don’t just jump at the latest gadget or fad. Take the time to work out what you are trying to achieve, and which tools can best meet your needs.
• Set the context with your team, and help them understand why and how this will help them do their job with a little less friction
• Give them training so they know how to use the tool
• Ensure IT have set the tools up in a way that makes them easy to use in every situation
• Create champions who will carry the flag in the first few months. These champions should also double as onsite coaches in the early days
• Lead by example. Don’t expect others to do what you don’t.

My CRM tool is not a bad tool, but its weaknesses have caused me friction. OneNote is not a perfect tool, but it works well enough to create flow for me. Your collaboration tools should all create flow, for the whole team. If not, you may find that nobody uses them.

OK, this article will be short. But it will be done, and will be available for you to read. This is better than having it remain unwritten in my head, I reckon.

So, we all have too much to do. And sometimes that means that we get behind. And that causes stress. This article is a good example. I try not to live hand-to-mouth with articles and newsletter. I try to write the one that goes out in six weeks today, not the one due to go out today. But sometimes even I (he says with an ironic smile), get behind.

The story I tell myself when in this situation is that I need a couple of hours to craft the perfect message, with the perfect image that will create the perfect learning for you, my dear reader. But I don’t have a couple of hours to spare today. So here it is, a fifteen-minute musing on itself. How Seinfeld!

In my head this newsletter was longer, probably much better, and about how to focus a conversation to reduce the disruption of an interruption. (Look out for that in a couple of weeks). But I reckon that good and delivered is better than excellent in my head. I hope you agree.

I had an appointment with my local GP this week. Being a little early, I whipped out my iPad and Apple pencil and started sketching out an idea for my next book (NEWS ALERT: Smart Teams to be published by Wiley in May 2018 – you heard it here first).

When the doctor was ready, I went into his office.  He was keen to find out what I thought of my iPad and Apple pencil because, as it turns out, he’s a huge fan of capturing notes digitally in MS OneNote.  In fact, he had just referred the previous patient to a new treatment based on notes he’d taken during a recent conference.

This to me is a prime example of turning information into intelligence. I reckon we can access almost unlimited amounts of information these days, so having enough information is never really the problem.  It’s only when we can access exactly the right information at the right time that we can use that information intelligently.  Otherwise it simply slips through our fingers.

So, how was my doctor able to bring his conference notes to life at the right time?

Firstly, he embraced the right technology and captured the information electronically using his iPad.  Many people find it awkward to use a laptop during meetings and conferences, whereas it’s less intrusive and more natural writing onscreen using a tablet instead.  At present, you may not be equipped with the right technology, but if it means amplifying your productivity, you should push to get that issue sorted!  Or perhaps you have the latest gadgets, but haven’t really embraced them fully.

Secondly, he made sure he could retrieve the information anywhere, anytime by storing his electronic notebooks on the cloud, and having his devices synchronised. This meant that the notes he took on his iPad at the conference automatically synced to his desktop in the office. No more frustrating situations of leaving his notes at home when he needed them most.

Finally, because he had stored the information electronically, he was able to use the search feature to find what he needed almost instantaneously.  This, plus the fact he was able to email the relevant page with the touch of a button, created a seamless and collaborative experience with his patient.

Try doing all that with a paper notepad! This local family GP was using technology in a best practice way to help him to do his job more effectively.

Now compare that to the presentation I gave last week to a senior leadership team. All were kitted out with the latest Surface Pro tablets and digital pens. All had access to MS OneNote. And yet when I asked for a show of hands, only three out of twelve were using it!  Such a waste!

Start turning information into intelligence today.  Boot up MS OneNote and give it a go.  It’s easy to use and has beautiful connectivity with your other favourite tool, MS Outlook.  To really turbocharge your team’s ability to capture, collate and collaborate, call or email me to learn more about our short OneNote Masterclass.

I was watching MasterChef the other night. OK, so there you have it. This is how I spend the hour a day I save using the Smart Work system! Three of the participants were in a pressure cook-off, and as they hit the last 15 minutes, George Calombaris shouts “Let’s push – you need to multitask now!”

I know what he meant when he said that, but he was not correct in suggesting they should ‘multitask’. They needed to do something similar, but multitasking does not work well in a kitchen full of sharp and hot things. From a productivity perspective, multitasking was the buzzword a few years ago, but there has been lots of research since that has shown multitasking is no guarantee of improved productivity.

You see, if you try to do two complex activities at the same time, the quality of one will invariably be diminished. Multitasking only works when you are doing two tasks that are almost automatic for you. So, I can drive and listen to the radio at the same time, but driving and dealing with a complex issue over the phone means that my full attention is not on the road. Even on hands-free. The quality of one of these activities will drop, possibly with dire consequences.

That said, there are some variations on multitasking that can be extremely useful to improve productivity. Next time George tells his chefs to multitask, maybe he should be more specific.

Multitasking

One person doing two tasks at the same time. In general, this can only work effectively if they are both simple tasks requiring little concentration and mental monitoring. In many work situations, multitasking will not improve productivity, because even if there is an efficiency gain, the quality drop will mean you are not working effectively.

Monotasking

Doing just one thing at a time. This strategy is best used for complex work that requires concentration. I am monotasking as I write this newsletter. Turn off distractions, lock yourself away and get on with it. Research suggests you do this sort of work in short bursts of no more than 40-60 minutes.

Task switching

I reckon this is what George was really asking his chefs to do. To physically move quickly between one task and another, while mentally thinking about both. Efficient task switching requires you to think two or three steps ahead, and be able to move quickly to the next activity. Having a plan in place is vital to do this, which is why I am such a big fan of planning your work and working your plan.

Concurrent tasking

This is where we take advantage of other resources to do one activity while we are working on another. So, in the MasterChef kitchen, a contestant can be preparing the main course while the ice cream dessert is cooling in the blast freezer. This final strategy can be a real productivity booster in the workplace as well since we have other resources to help us get stuff done – technology resources and human resources. However, to take advantage of this strategy, we need to be organised and proactive. How often do we miss the opportunity to concurrently task because we have not been organised, have not planned ahead, or have left something until the last minute?

So, next time you hear someone talking about multitasking, get more specific. Think about the jobs to be done, and work out if one of the strategies above will be effective without compromising the quality of the work.

By the way, I did see a shot of one of the chefs trying to stir her broth while chopping onions. Not pretty! She was sent home later that night I believe.